Nontraditionals?

Any nontraditionals? I am 30 - wanted to be a vet as a child, but felt like I was too sensitive. I have volunteered in rescue for years and almost went bonkers. I make more money now then I ever would as a vet - patent lawyer, but I don't care about age or money when chasing a dream.

I am really just looking for perspective about what is involved. What kind of person makes the best vet student and vet? Is it ok to love animals and want a ranch full of rescued animals but not be a vet? I chose something at 21 and am now stuck with it for a while - so I don't want to go to something else and fail again. Just exploring - thanks for any thoughts and please PM me.

Hi there. First of all, there are PLENTY of non-traditional students in my class and the class ahead of me. We have a dot-commer, an Army corpsman, veterinary technicians tired of not being able to make the call, medical techs tired of working in human med, one of my good friends is a grandmother- and not one of those young grannies, either!, I am going to be 30 this year, and had denied my dream of vet school for 5 years after graduation because, well, that's a complicated story. I then took 6 years to complete a BS, and 2 tries to acceptance into vet school. There are lots of people like us in vet school all over the country.

As for the JD, there are a few very famous DVM-JD's in many states across the country, and they do very well representing veterinarians in malpractice suits and in cases involving the veterinary medical board (licensing comittees). Just like there are non-traditional students, there are non-traditional DVM's... research, practice (clinical or ambulatory), academia (with that kind of background, you could join Rolland at CSU working on ethical issues), and DVM-JD's, DVM-MD's, basically every professional career has some double-trained individuals.

For the money aspect, that is up to you. Vet School is expensive, just like any professional school, and takes longer to pay off because the return on investment is lower, no doubt about it. But if it's the dream and not the bucks you are after, then listen to your heart, I guess... I don't regret it, but it is MUCH harder than I anticipated.

If you want to stick with the lawyer thing and help animals, I heard that there are lawyers who specialize in animal abuses cases, etc. Don't know if that helps (or if they even exist!), but it may be worth it to look into it.

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